Storytelling Strategies

This was written down in a talk from Portfolio2Professional, a part of Stanford Continuing Studies.

Building your online presence

Storytelling is for everyone. The same story can change based on

  1. What you want to convey
  2. Who the audience is
  3. The time and location
  4. The purpose of the story

The strategies presented here are primarily for building a personal brand but they can be used for stories ranging from pitches to presentations. You might have a compelling idea and communicating properly is important for the idea to go across well. You need to sell a story to advocate your idea or case since your story will stick to the listener in ways you cannot decide. Most of the time, you will not be present when your story is talked about and having an intriguing narrative is important for the key points to be remembered.

How someone will experience you + A roadmap to who you are and how you think = Brand

The story of a story

Timeline of a story execution

Strategies

The strategies presented below are a few of the ways a story can be put forward. Choosing a model to use depends on the use case and the impact you want it to have. Though every strategy doesn’t have to be used, it is important to practice all to get an understanding of what possibilities are present.

  1. Basic Description
  2. 3 Adjectives
  3. Address and Directions:
    1. Address: Where you want to go with your idea
    2. Directions: What actions will you be taking to go in that direction
  4. External Empathy/Internal Story
    1. External Empathy: Find aspects people can relate to. This can be a question, statistic, or something you describe.
    2. Internal Story: How does the above-said introduction resonate with your work.
  5. Elevator Pitch
    1. Who (you are)
    2. What (you do)
    3. Why (you are unique)
    4. Goal (for the pitch)
  6. Your six-word story
  7. Explain it to your grandmother
  8. Vision Statement: Why do you care about what you do